Medical board 'was incompetent'

Andrea Petrie

THE ''complete incompetence'' of Victoria's medical practitioners board led to a drug-addicted anaesthetist infecting 55 women with hepatitis C, a court has heard.

Victoria's Supreme Court heard that while James Latham Peters was required to undergo regular urine drug screening as part of the board's monitoring conditions after he confessed to having a drug problem, he was never tested for the drug he was addicted to, fentanyl.

The court heard Peters, 63, had a history of drug abuse as well as convictions for possessing a drug of dependence and falsifying prescriptions when he infected the women with the potentially deadly blood disease between June 2008 and November 2009.

He has pleaded guilty to 55 counts of negligently causing serious injury to the patients by injecting himself with pre-filled syringes of fentanyl - an opioid used in general anaesthesia - in theatre at Croydon Day Surgery. He then administered the remaining drug to the patients as they underwent pregnancy terminations.

His pre-sentence plea hearing was told that while he had informed the medical board - which was abolished under subsequent legislation - about his addiction to fentanyl and pethidine in 1996, Peters failed to disclose his hepatitis C status.

The health department, which the court heard would have been aware he was a doctor being monitored for a fentanyl addiction, was told as soon as he tested positive to the disease, but did not pass on the information.

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''From that point in time there was a catastrophe waiting to happen,'' Chief Crown Prosecutor Gavin Silbert, SC, told Justice Terry Forrest on Monday.

The court heard that despite being suspended by the board while he sought help for his addiction, Peters was allowed to return to work under certain monitoring conditions.

He also had to be supervised by Dr Mark Schulberg, the owner of the Croydon Day Surgery. But Mr Silbert said Dr Schulberg had a vested financial interest: he could not operate the clinic without an anaesthetist.

The clinic's director of nursing then took over supervision duties, but Mr Silbert said ''clearly she, too, failed to exercise any control''.

The court heard Peters was required to undergo 225 urine drug tests between January 2001 and November 2009.

''Incredibly, those drug screens did not test for fentanyl because fentanyl was never asked for,'' Mr Silbert said. ''The detailed history of the board's dealing with the prisoner reveals complete incompetence in the board's regulation and monitoring of him.'' The board had also relied on, and it seems acted at all times on, Peters' word about his attendance and compliance with the Victorian Doctors Health Program, the service set up to monitor and rehabilitate drug-addicted medical practitioners.

''The problem is it needs only one doctor to fall through the crack to create a major health disaster and Mr Peters is that doctor.''

Several women whom Peters infected were in court and spoke in their victim impact statements about their devastation at having contracted a disease, commonly associated with drug addicts, through medical negligence when they were vulnerable.

Justice Forrest remanded Peters in custody after hearing he was a suicide risk. The hearing continues.